With the turning of the 21rst century I decided that twenty years of writing computer software was enough. By 2003 I had landed a job as a motion picture researcher for the film Beowulf, my qualification being that I had actually read the original…in 1982!

That lead in time to a job at the legendary visual effects house Industrial Light and Magic, where in the last year alone I’ve worked on Tomorrowland, Jurassic World, Agent Carter, Avengers Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, The Revenant, and Star Wars The Force Awakens. By 2009 I decided to try my hand at writing. I’ve had fifteen sales so far, and I won the 2013 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story. You can find out more about my writing and film work at www.gregorynormanbossert.com.

And look for new stories at The Dark Magazine website and in Asimov’s Science Fiction. “Two Things About Thrand”, like last year’s “Twelve and Tag” which was also adapted by StarShipSofa, was drafted at the 2010 Clarion writer’s workshop.

Narrated by: Katherine Inskip

Katherine weighs galaxies for a living, and builds worlds in her spare time. She is addicted to chocolate and Japanese logic puzzles.

GARETH L. POWELL is an award-winning writer from the UK. He is the author of the novels Silversands, The Recollection, Ack-Ack Macaque, Hive Monkey and Macaque Attack.

His alternate history thriller, Ack-Ack Macaque, won the 2013 BSFA (British Science Fiction Association) Award for Best Novel, and his story, ‘Ride The Blue Horse’, is currently shortlisted for the 2015 BSFA Award, in the short fiction category. In addition to winning the BSFA Award, Ack-Ack Macaque has also been published in Japan by Tokyo Sogensha; Fantasy Book Reviews placed it at #40 in their list of Top 100 Fantasy Books; and it has also inspired a comic strip, fan art, graffiti murals, a pop song, and at least one tattoo.

In 2011, The Guardian review of Gareth’s second novel, The Recollection, insisted that, “If you only read one space opera this year, it’s got to be The Recollection.” The book went on to be translated and published in Germany by Heyne (a division of Random House) under the title Sternentor. He is currently working on his sixth novel.

Gareth’s short stories have appeared in a host of magazines and anthologies, including Interzone, Solaris Rising 3, and The Year’s Best Science Fiction. Many of his stories have been brought together in the collections, The Last Reef(2008)and The New Ships(coming 2017).

The Guardian says, “Powell draws his characters with fine brushstrokes.” SF Book Reviews places him, “at the forefront of science fiction,” and Gutenberg’s Son writes that he, “has managed to find the balance between thoughtful existentialism and pulp adventure. In addition to his fiction, Gareth has penned a strip for the long-running British comic, 2000 AD, and has written articles and reviews for The Irish Times, Acoustic Magazine, and SFX.

In the early 1990s, Gareth studied creative writing at the University of Glamorgan. He has since run a genre fiction workshop at Aberystwyth University and given guest lectures on creative writing at Bath Spa Uni. He is also a popular panelist and speaker at literary events and conventions, and was a guest of honour at BristolCon in 2012. He is a frequent guest on local radio, and has appeared on the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme.

Narrated by: Katherine Inskip

Katherine weighs galaxies for a living, and builds worlds in her spare time. She is addicted to chocolate and Japanese logic puzzles.

Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam’s fiction has appeared in magazines such as Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. She lives in Texas with her partner and two literarily-named cats: Gimli and Don Quixote. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program and curates the annual Art & Words Show in Fort Worth. You can visit her on Twitter @BonnieJoStuffle or through her website: www.bonniejostufflebeam.com.

Caroline M. Yoachim lives in Seattle and loves cold cloudy weather. She is the author of dozens of short stories, appearing in Fantasy & Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, Asimov’s, and Lightspeed. Her debut short story collection, SEVEN WONDERS OF A ONCE AND FUTURE WORLD & OTHER STORIES, is coming out with Fairwood Press in 2016. For more about Caroline, check out her website at http://carolineyoachim.com

Tricia Glock is the pen name of a person who works too many jobs and has far too little time to write as much as she should. She likes her cat more than her computer, which is unfortunate, and her family more than her cat, which is less so. She wrote this because StarShipSofa has accompanied her through many difficult hours and has always made her heart sing!

Narrated by Nicola Seaton-Clark

Nicola lives in the wilds of (almost) Eastern Europe with her long-suffering husband, phenomenal children and a grumpy cat. Trained as an actress and singer, she has worked in entertainment for over 20 years and currently splits her time between writing speculative fiction, helping her husband run their voice-over company, Offstimme, and voicing everything from commercials and documentaries to public transport announcements.

How I write Notes : http://bit.ly/howiwritenotes

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